Companies may be banned from using personal data to set different prices for customers

Avant Garden Bookstore in Anoka has built goodwill in the community through events and fundraising, but the independent bookseller can’t compete with the big box stores and online retailers.

“Every day, we encounter readers who are delighted to find our store and enjoy the browsing experience and exposure to titles they likely would not have discovered if it were not for us. It is very common to have an in-depth conversation about their discovery in the hopes they will buy the book from us and support our business, only to have them take a picture of it instead and find it available for sometimes less than cost on Amazon,” owner Jenni Hill said.

Hill said companies’ use of surveillance pricing could further hurt her business.

Surveillance pricing is when a company uses data collected on customers to individualize prices, essentially setting different prices for different customers buying the same product instead of the same price for all customers. Concerns about the practice raised before the House Commerce Finance and Policy Committee Wednesday included companies setting higher prices for some customers to increase their profits and the lack of transparency for consumers on the true price of a product.